The LEED® Canada pilot projects

Enerlife is project managing national, large-scale, pilot projects with existing buildings for the Canada Green Building Council (CaGBC). The pilots are a part of the CaGBC’s multi-year project to dramatically improve the energy and environmental performance of buildings in Canada. The initiative will enable deep reductions in energy and water use and greenhouse gas emissions, together with related environmental and economic benefits for buildings, homes and communities in all parts of the country.

The first pilots involve K-12 schools, commercial office, and government and utility administration buildings and additional pilots are being rolled out for other building types. Pilot participants are able to:

• Benchmark actual energy and water use against comparable buildings
  
• Access and contribute to performance standards, baselines and best practices
  
• Assess the potential for LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance (LEED EB:OM) certification for their buildings, and work towards certification for their selected buildings
  
• Obtain a deep understanding of LEED for existing buildings and create specific action plans
  
• Engage staff and stakeholders in the performance and progress of their buildings
• Inform and stay connected to developments with LEED, the Green Building Performance System, and building performance trends within their sectors

Tools developed by Enerlife for the pilot projects include:

Building Performance Audit: The audit measures and documents the design and performance metrics of building systems, identifying areas for improvement, and enabling better energy performance. Areas covered include: lighting, fan power, pump power, equipment, plant capacity, water fixtures, building envelope, as well as reconciling measured loads with the billed electrical demand for the building. The results are benchmarked against other high performance buildings, establishing best practice standards, which can be used by building owners to direct the designers of new buildings and retrofit projects.

LEED Action Plan Workshop: The workshop brings together various stakeholders (building owners, operators, facility managers, environmental/energy managers) to work with actual performance data of their participating buildings, using the LEED EB:OM framework. Participants use an innovative Target Finder template to set energy use targets based on best practice standards identified through the pilot and to estimate savings potential. Specific actions, timelines and costs are then recorded in an Action Plan template.

Commercial landlords, school boards and government real property organizations can participate in this ongoing initiative.

For further information, visit the Canada Green Building Council at http://www.cagbc.org/.